HS Football Weekend Wrapup: History lesson ends with Wilton win

By John Nash

Updated
8:10 pm EDT, Sunday, September 11, 2016

The Wilton High football team stands silently as a memorial stone for former head coach Tom Fujitani is revealed before the start of Friday's season-opening game against Fairfield Warde, which was played on Fujitani Field. Theformer coach passed away suddenly earlier this year. less

The Wilton High football team stands silently as a memorial stone for former head coach Tom Fujitani is revealed before the start of Friday's season-opening game against Fairfield Warde, which was played on ... more

The Wilton High football team stands silently as a memorial stone for former head coach Tom Fujitani is revealed before the start of Friday's season-opening game against Fairfield Warde, which was played on Fujitani Field. Theformer coach passed away suddenly earlier this year. less

The Wilton High football team stands silently as a memorial stone for former head coach Tom Fujitani is revealed before the start of Friday's season-opening game against Fairfield Warde, which was played on ... more

History played an important role in Friday night’s season-opening slate of high school football games.

In Wilton, the Warriors got to formally honor longtime former head coach Tom Fujitani, a legendary figure in town where the gridiron already bears his name, by displaying a memorial stone as a tribute to his passing earlier this year.

Over in Westport, meanwhile, another longtime coach, Staples’ Marce Petroccio, had his date with history, reaching the 200 career win plateau.

And, Norwalk High School opened the 2016 season with a 41-19 win over Fairfield Ludlowe. How might that be historic? Well, the 22-point victory was the Bears first opening day win by three touchdowns since 2003 when they topped Trinity Catholic, 40-6.

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After the Warriors pulled out a thrilling 21-14 win over Fairfield Warde in overtime on Friday night, coach Bruce Cunningham talked about the emotion of the week leading up to the game and what it meant for him and the Wilton players.

“The guys who played, none of them new Coach Fuj,” Cunningham said. “Some of them weren’t even born when he was coaching here. But it gave us the opportunity to share a lot of stories about him and for them to have an understanding of the history this place. It became a history lesson and turned into a tribute.”

Fujitani passed away unexpectedly this past April, and the field has been called Fujitani Field for 15 years.

The newest addition, though, is a marble stone that sits in the stadium’s Memorial Garden, just to the left of the monuments of all the service veterans in town who lost their lives in combat.

Cunningham joked postgame that Fujitani would have loved the way his Warriors won, as well.

“I know he would have been proud of this,” Cunningham said. “We played great defense, we ran the ball and took over the game late. That’s something he would have wanted, a game to be won that way.”

Wilton’s first play of the night was run out of the wishbone formation and was sent into the game by none other than Fujitani’s son, Tom Jr., who was on the sideline for the contest.

“He called it just as coach would have — Two T-Power Dive-Right,” Cunningham said.

As an additional aside to the team’s history lesson, the Warriors also showed once again they can perform under pressure.

Last year, Wilton won two games in overtime — 30-27 over Stamford and 20-17 over Danbury.

“I do think from a confidence standpoint, you know what to expect going into it,” Cunningham said. “I think from a coaching staff’s point of view, when you’re in it, being there before has something to do with it.”

So notching its first 21-point-plus season-opening victory in 13 years might not be all that historic, but as Norwalk coach Sean Ireland says, “We’ll take it.”

In fact, the coach said, it was a win that was good enough so that 48 hours later he wasn’t even overly concerned about the 15 penalties his team racked up in the victory.

“I’m not concerned because after watching the film, they’re all correctable,” he said. “They were just all mistakes — lining up in the neutral zone, jumping offside — these are things we can fix.”

With question marks hanging over them during preseason camp, namely how will the defense step up and who will take over the Bears’ share of the running chores?, what Ireland came away most impressed with was the leadership of his team.

“I’m not saying this just to say a good thing in the paper,” He said. “The thing I was most impressed with was how we responded to adversity.”

Ireland pointed to the fact his team was down 6-0 and Ludlowe was driving and looking to put Norwalk down two scores.

Instead, his defense stiffened and got the ball back without further damage.

“When you win 42-19, it doesn’t look like there is adversity,” Ireland said. “But if they score (again) who knows what could happen. But there was no finger pointing, no pouting; just let’s get back to business and after that we were fine. Our whole senior class, when things turned tough, they responded.”

Ireland said preparing for week two after a win isn’t any easier, “it’s just more enjoyable.”

Norwalk — which has won six of its last seven season-openers, including two in a row — hosts Fairfield Warde on Friday.

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Petroccio might have hit the 200-win milestone on Friday, but it still leaves him standing alone in 18th place all-time in the state’s record book of coaching victories.

He’s one win behind Hall’s Frank Robinson for 17th place all time and could get as high as 14th by the time the season is over.

Still, the Wreckers coach isn’t worried about his place his history.

“It means I’ve been coaching a long time,” Petroccio told Hearst Media Connecticut’s Ryan Lacey after the game. “Every kid that has been through this program owns a piece of this football, that’s for sure. I’m just proud that I’ve gotten to this point and I’m proud to say I’ve been here the amount of years that I’ve been here.”

“There was a nice little tribute on the video board and they gave me the game ball, which was nice,” Petroccio said. “But we watched film and went to Danbury (on Saturday to scout) and we’re right back at it today.”

Petroccio did say Friday’s game was probably the most hotly contested game he’s ever coached — at least in a meteorological sense with temps pushing 90 at kickoff.

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With his team trailing 17-13 at halftime to perennial FCIAC power Staples, McMahon coach AJ Albano was impressed with how his team went toe-to-toe with the Wreckers.

“They scored a field goal, we scored a touchdown; they scored a touchdown, we answered with a touchdown,” Albano said. “The kids just played their hearts out in that first half.”

The coach also knew his team didn’t have a lot left to give.

“I saw it at halftime,” he admitted. “I tried everything in my power to give them a pump-up speech, and try to find some fumes and run on adrenaline. If I think kids have something left, I’m going to ask them to give me what they have, and these are tough kids, but I could tell they were running out of gas.”

The fact the young Senators weren’t intimidated by a road game at Staples said a lot, too, though, and Albano knows now the next step is to get his team to be better in week two.

“I think we can do some things. It’s just going to be depth,” Albano said. “We’re going to get in better shape. We still made a lot of mistakes. There were plays to be had. They just have to be coachable and get better.”

Albano said he liked the way his quarterback Chris Druin and Eric Day teamed up for two long touchdown passes — and Day could have had a third, the coach said.

“He had one go through his hands and he’ll tell you he’ll catch that 99 times out of 100,” Albano said. “We have high expectations for those two and they lived up to those expecations.”

Albano also liked the way fullback-turned-two-way-lineman Jordan Smith played after being moved to offensive guard and also playing defensive tackle.